Overview

In Brief

Recently, cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment has been under increased scruti­ny. Efforts to abol­ish or impose a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty are mul­ti­ply­ing. Many peo­ple, includ­ing bar asso­ci­a­tions, mem­bers of Congress, and lead­ers of reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions are rais­ing con­cerns about the appli­ca­tion of the death penal­ty, and new bal­lot ini­tia­tives are mak­ing an appear­ance. Several states have called for stud­ies of the fair­ness and jus­tice of the death penalty.

Centered on a con­tro­ver­sial issue of great pub­lic con­cern, this unit is designed to facil­i­tate crit­i­cal think­ing, cit­i­zen respon­si­bil­i­ty and voice, and writ­ing and coop­er­a­tive group work.

In this unit, stu­dents will be intro­duced to issues and opin­ions con­cern­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in a Web/classroom/group-work envi­ron­ment. Their research reports will be pub­licly debat­ed in a legislative/​town meet­ing, where a deci­sion on the issue will be made.

Students will begin this unit by review­ing and ren­der­ing a deci­sion on four actu­al death penal­ty cas­es. They will then research in groups to exam­ine crit­i­cal­ly the con­cept and prac­tice of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, engage in a role play sim­u­la­tion, present their find­ings to a group rep­re­sent­ing a leg­isla­tive body that will con­sid­er their pre­sen­ta­tions, and deter­mine whether their state should sup­port, abol­ish, or impose a mora­to­ri­um on the death penalty.

Rationale

The pur­pose of this unit is to pre­pare stu­dents to take on the roles of respon­si­ble and informed cit­i­zens, and to work coop­er­a­tive­ly in a safe class­room envi­ron­ment where dif­fer­ences of opin­ion can be pro­duc­tive­ly expressed in the process of com­ing to a deci­sion on a seri­ous mat­ter. As cit­i­zens in a democ­ra­cy, stu­dents will strug­gle with their own opin­ions in cre­at­ing a pub­lic posi­tion regard­ing fair­ness and jus­tice as it relates to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. The group work will give stu­dents first-hand expe­ri­ence in deal­ing with the dynam­ics of demo­c­ra­t­ic deci­sion-mak­ing based on the assump­tion that pub­lic opin­ion trick­les up via grass roots efforts, opin­ion polls, and cit­i­zen voice. As stu­dents exam­ine who is eli­gi­ble to serve on a cap­i­tal case, review and dis­cuss four actu­al cas­es includ­ing the sto­ries of the vic­tims involved, explore argu­ments for and against the death penal­ty includ­ing expert tes­ti­mo­ny, review the cur­rent meth­ods of exe­cu­tion, and inter­pret demo­graph­ic infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed on the site, the issues of fair­ness and jus­tice will be at the forefront.

Outcomes

Students will thought­ful­ly con­sid­er the cen­tral issues con­cern­ing the death penal­ty, uti­liz­ing infor­ma­tion pro­vid­ed on the Web site. They will also engage in crit­i­cal self-reflec­tion on the issue and learn to nego­ti­ate their per­son­al posi­tions as they work in groups for the pur­pose of cre­at­ing pub­lic pol­i­cy. Students will do their own research, pro­duce a report, and debate group research find­ings via a role-play sce­nario with appro­pri­ate sup­port for their posi­tions, cul­mi­nat­ing in a class deci­sion to sup­port, abol­ish, or impose a mora­to­ri­um on the death penal­ty. In addi­tion to their group’s report, the sug­ges­tions they offer and the class’s final deci­sion, stu­dents will also reflect on their own posi­tion at the begin­ning and at the end of the unit through personal essays.

Themes

Citizen agency and voice; issues of fair­ness and jus­tice with regard to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment; exam­i­na­tion and nego­ti­a­tion of indi­vid­ual and col­lec­tive opin­ions; the demo­c­ra­t­ic deci­sion-mak­ing process; personal/​persuasive essay writing.

Time:

2 weeks +

Materials needed:

1. Computer lab with Internet capabilities
2. PowerPoint soft­ware or poster board and relat­ed dis­play mate­ri­als (for group presentations)
3. Death Penalty Main Site:
   1. Based on your beliefs, would you be cho­sen to serve as a juror on a cap­i­tal case? (to help exam­ine their ini­tial per­spec­tives and pre­pare them for the cas­es they will be given)
   2. Four Death Penalty Case Studies (to serve as real life exam­ples for their delib­er­a­tion, reports and discussion)
   3. Arguments and expert tes­ti­mo­ny for and against the death penal­ty (to explore the var­i­ous posi­tions and use of evidence)
   4. Methods of Execution (to use as evi­dence of cru­el and unusu­al pun­ish­ment or as humane meth­ods of ter­mi­nat­ing a life)
   5. State-by-State Data (to use in inves­ti­gat­ing issues of fair­ness and jus­tice — espe­cial­ly regard­ing dif­fer­ences between states and ethnicity)Secondarily:
   6. History of the death penal­ty (to pro­vide his­tor­i­cal con­text, the­mat­ic illus­tra­tion of past and present pub­lic opin­ion, and to serve as evi­dence for reports)
   7. Stages in a cap­i­tal case (to show the process, from com­mis­sion of the crime through tri­al, sen­tenc­ing, and appeals)
   8. Current events (to make con­nec­tions between the sim­u­la­tions and issues influ­enc­ing cur­rent public opinion)

Assessment:

Initial and final posi­tion paper; know/​want to know notes; reflec­tion papers on group work dynam­ics; group research projects and role-play presentations.